Cloaked in Shadow
by Sarcastic Texan
Summary: AU. Artemis is a Shadow. After ten years of training, she is sent on her first mission, where she is captured. Will she befriend that spunky redhead kid who keeps visiting her cell, or will the Shadows break her out before she can tell the League all of their secrets? Yeah, bad summary but please read?
1. The First Mission

**Yup. I don't own Young Justice, and I'm mostly writing this story because hiatus is killing me slowly and I needed some Spitfire satisfaction. Hope you enjoy.**

Artemis had never heard of a collaboration job with Intergang, so she knew that they must be moving some pretty big cargo to need the extra security. She and Black Spider would be watching the inside, and Hook, Ubu, and Cheshire would cover the perimeter, while Intergang members moved Apokoliptan tech out of boom tubes.

It was her first mission, but after ten years of training, she was itching for action.

_Must be some pretty important tech if they want five Shadow guards._ Artemis thought as she climbed to the top of a mountain of crates that gave her a good view of the interior of the warehouse.

Below, Intergang members bustled about, loading boxes of alien tech into trucks. The space was dimly lit by barn lights chained to the ceiling, bathing everything in a sickly yellow glow and casting dark shadows in the corners.

Outside, Artemis knew Hook and Ubu must be taking positions on the roof, while her sister walked amongst the shadows of the trees.

Black Spider swung down from a hanging light and landed with a _thump_ on the box next to Artemis, which was stamped with the upside-down words _This side Up_. Artemis rolled her eyes under her domino mask.

"They must be moving some pretty big stuff if they want _us_ around." Black Spider said, lounging next to Artemis and putting his arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing." Artemis said aloud. She paused for a moment, then noticed Spider's arm around her shoulder and scoffed. "What do you want?"

"I was just checking on you. Wouldn't want a pretty girl like you breaking a nail on her first day on the job."

Artemis scowled. "I've been training for this since I was six. I have seven years on _you_, Spider. Watch it."

"C'mon, babe. I was only kidding."

Artemis rolled her eyes again. "It's never gonna happen, Spider. I'm sixteen. You're like, thirty."

"I'm twenty-two, Tigress. That's a six year age difference. It could happen!" Black Spider retorted.

Artemis snorted. "Well I'm a little out of your league, Spider. Now, why don't you go flirt with Cheshire? I'm sure she'd love the attention."

"Chesh? Nah, she's not my type."

Before Artemis could scoff make a witty retort, her sister's voice came over the radio.

"_I saw movement. Investigating now."_ Cheshire's voice clipped in her ear.

"_Copy that. Maintaining perimeter."_ Ubu responded.

There was a moment of uncertain pause, where nothing but static went through the radio. Black Spider tensed. Artemis's hand crept towards her side, where her crossbow hung by her belt.

"_Ubu, Hook, I need backup. We've got three Leaguers, and sidekicks closing in."_ Artemis marveled at her sister's ability to maintain such a calm physique when faced with such a dangerous situation. Black Spider disappeared, which seemed to be his specialty, along with flirting with sixteen-year-olds.

The archer stood, alert and ready for action, and pulled the crossbow from her belt. "We've got company. Move it!" she called down. Her own voice was strangely shrill, but she maintained her composure and climbed up the mountain of crates to get a better vantage point.

The Intergang members below scrambled to the trucks.

Then all hell broke loose.

A red blur sped into the warehouse, immediately taking out the Intergang stragglers that weren't hiding with their cargo.

"Crap. It's the Flash." Artemis whispered to herself. No, wait. Now there was something yellow. Yellow _and_ red, speeding around the piles of crates. "The Flash _and _Kid Annoying. This'll be fun."

From above, Artemis was able to recognize the yellow blur's running course, like the flight pattern of an airplane, and she sent a crossbow bolt in his path.

Artemis climbed down from her perch to intercept the speedster, who had been hit dead on by her projectile and had slowed down.

"You and me, carrot top?" she taunted, putting her crossbow away and taking up a fighting stance.

He threw the first punch. "All right, but I'm not going easy on you." He had a voice that made Artemis catch her breath. It was mischievous, playful, and yet… intoxicating.

As she hit him squarely in the jaw she narrowed her eyes. "Neither am I." Artemis feigned an attack on his right side, and then went in for a kick to his left. He caught her foot and twisted her ankle, causing her to cry out in pain. With her free foot, she kicked him in the jaw, did a back handspring and landed on her feet.

"_Hey Tigress, if you're not too busy I could use some backup." _Black Spider's voice crackled to life over the radio.

Artemis gritted her teeth. Under normal circumstances, she would have completely ignored Spider, but since it was her first mission, she figured she'd have to follow orders from her superior. "I'd love to keep beating you up," She said, pulling out her crossbow and aiming at Kid Flash, "but I've got other things to do."

She shot a bolt right at the speedster's chest, encasing him in an expanding mass of foam that froze around his body, trapping him. "This isn't over, stripes!" he taunted, straining to free himself.

"The name's _Tigress_, Speedy. Get it right!"

Artemis tore through the main loading area of the warehouse, which was a full-on war zone, and locked on Black Spider's signal.

"Someone order a pizza?" Artemis said sarcastically. Her comrade was bound in a length of cord, shot from a batarang.

"Very funny, Tigress. Batman just wrapped me up so he shouldn't be far away…" Artemis whipped around just in time to see the Dark Knight himself land behind her. He threw two more batarangs at her, which she dodged with a roll at the last second.

She brought out the crossbow and fired two bolts at Batman, one being sliced to pieces by the razor sharp fins on the hero's glove, and the other going right though the space where his head was only a nanosecond before.

Batman threw a punch. After ten years of training Artemis was a pro at hand-to-hand combat, but now she was on defense, which was her weakest suit. On top of that she was fighting Batman. _The _Batman.

Another punch. Artemis dodged and kicked the Dark Knight in the chest, sending him backward a few steps, though it barely took him a second to reagain his footing. Artemis flipped backwards to dodge another attack. As Batman came at her, Artemis jumped, used his broad shoulders as a spring board, and sprang up to a light fixture, which swung erratically under her feet.

From her new position, Artemis fired her crossbow at Black Spider, the sharp arrow snagging on the rope and setting him loose.

Batman shot a grappling hook at the platform beneath Arty's feet and pulled, causing the archer to hang on for dear life as her perch was jerked sideways. She cursed under her breath as she jumped down and landed on an unstable pile of crates that tipped over before she could regain her footing.

The next thing she knew, the dark knight stood over her, about to kick her lights out, but at the last second she rolled to the side and sprang to her feet. They were engaged in a deadly duel of arrow versus batarang, of fist versus fist.

"A little—" she called, only to look down and see Black Spider's lithe figure sprinting away from the scene. "—Help?"

For a moment, all the archer could hear was the eerie silence of the warehouse, which Intergang had abandoned. Batman took advantage of her confusion and threw an uppercut that sent Artemis flying.

She landed in a pile of boxes fifty feet away.

She groaned and got up, but found herself surrounded by Leaguers: Batman, Boy Wonder, the Flash, and Black Canary.

Sighing, she held up her hands, then remembered the special pill capsule she kept in a compartment in her glove. If swallowed, it would cause death within a minute, but she knew it had another use, too.

Artemis flexed her index finger, then made a throwing motion towards the ground, and smiled in satisfaction as a thick veil of smoke instantly shrouded her surroundings in darkness. Batman barked out an order to his sidekick, something about concussion grenades, but Artemis was already gone, having barely slipped through the gap between Black Canary and The Flash and started running towards the nearest exit.

As Artemis made a getaway, she looked back at the four superheroes, astounded at her easy escape.

_Wait, four?_

_Wham!_

Something yellow slammed into her.

Her skull made a sickening cracking noise as it hit the pavement, sending the world around her into a spiral.

"I've been… Intercepted." Artemis said into her radio. She knew that nobody would come back for her, but she thought she'd tell them anyways.

A voice crackled to life in her ear. _"Sorry, Tigress."_ It was Black Spider, no doubt. He actually sounded regretful, if that was possible over a radio.

She took the radio out of her ear and crushed it in her fist, scattering the pieces on the pavement before drawing a deep breath and sucumming to dizziness.

Kid Flash himself appeared over her, an amused look on his face.

"Sorry blondie."

"You don't very sorry, _carrot top.__" _Artemis mumbled.

"The name's _Kid Flash._ Don't wear it out."

That was the last thing she heard before everything faded to black.


	2. Familiar

**A/N: Ahhhh, I love the Young Justice fandom. In 1 day this story has like two times more followers than my Legend of Korra story, and I thank you all for that. This chapter isn't as long, but it's the best I could come up with in the 3-day time span it takes me to update my stories, so deal with it. Gracias to all of the people who reviewed, I do not own YJ or Spitfire... Blah blah blah.**

After they brought the tiger chick in, Wally headed straight for the fridge. His metabolism was low, and his fight with the blonde had worn him out.

Usually Bats had some good food, but he was a little too distracted to pay any attention to what he was shoveling into his mouth. Sure, he was psyched about his victory against Tigress, but he felt like he knew her from somewhere. She seemed familiar.

The defiant yet hostile glare in those deep blue-gray eyes, the long wave of blonde hair...

_No._ Wally told himself. _She's just another villain._ But the familiarity still bothered him.

After cleaning out about half of the Wayne mansion's pantry, Wally went to find Dick.

The cell Artemis was being kept in was completely bare, completely made of high-grade steel on three walls, the ceiling and floor, and only contained two chairs and a table.

His raven-haired friend was watching the prisoner through one-way glass of the fourth wall, his eyes hidden behind dark shades.

"Dude, why do you wear those?" Wally asked. "We're _inside_."

"You never know with the Shadows." Dick said.

Wally laughed. "What? You think they've developed a technique to see through _mirrored glass?_ You're paranoid."

"Better safe than sorry."

"You sound like a seatbelt commercial." Wally teased. "But anyways, how's she doing?" he took a seat next to his best friend and they both stared at their captive for a long moment of uneasy silence.

The blonde was still wearing her tiger-striped unitard, but she had taken off her boots, kneepads, and elbow pads. She loosened her hair from her ponytail and brushed it out with her fingers, all the while keeping the domino mask on.

She seemed... distracted. She walked over to the window and knocked on it, as though testing its density. Then she leaned against the wall and took heavy breaths.

Wally could only imagine what she was thinking.

She turned around... and then took a swing at the wall, denting it badly and causing a little gasp to escape from Wally.

"She's got... spirit." said Wally, raising an eyebrow as he watched her throw a chair at the wall and overturn the table.

"You've got that right. We had to sedate her two more times on her way over here." Dick laughed.

"Yeah, are you sure you found all of her weapons? She could be hiding _anything_ in that hair." Wally joked as Artemis threw the other chair at the glass window.

"Pretty darn sure." the Boy Wonder replied, slightly offended that his friend would doubt him.

"So have you gotten the results from the DNA test?"

"Not yet. Batman wanted to be 100% positive on her I.D., so we sent some more samples to Star Labs. They should be back in a couple of days."

Wally was slightly disappointed, still wanting to know the identity of the archer who he seemed so familiar with.

* * *

Artemis checked the lining of her kneepads and elbow pads for the hidden razor blades the League of Shadows supplied her with, but those were gone, too.

Of the 33 different weapons she carried, the League had stripped her of them all. She felt _naked_, and not even in a fun way.

The mirrored glass wall seemed to taunt her. She knew there must be _someone_ on the other side watching her, because she couldn't find any cameras in the room, but she couldn't see them. It was so _frustrating._

She rubbed her head and felt the bump where the cement had caught her fall. The entire right side of her body ached; her uniform was torn and she was cut and bleeding in many places, and she had a few bruises on her neck and face that would make waking up in the morning even more of a pain than usual.

_I can't believe I let myself get captured._ She thought. _On my first mission, no less!_

Then she completely lost it. She went ballistic in that room, punching the wall, throwing the table and the chairs around, and completely wrecking her cell.

Then she sat back and surveyed the damage she had done.

_Just calm down. Throwing temper tantrums will get you nowhere. Remember your training._

Artemis took a few calming breaths. She righted the table and the two chairs, then sat down and waited.


	3. The Interrogation, pt 1

**A/N: Sorry for being such a bitch and waiting so long to write this chapter. I could use the excuse of schoolwork getting in the way, but that would only be half true. This one's a little rough since I haven't gotten to see enough Spitfire interaction in such a long time, so if you have any suggestions for how this story should continue or anything I should edit, please comment and let me know.**

The two sidekicks has practically _begged_ Batman to let them in first.

"She'll probably feel more comfortable if she's talking to people her own age." Dick reasoned.

"Yeah Bats. And besides, even the great Batman needs some sleep. You look beat."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. Dick elbowed his friend in the rib cage and put on his best _please-please-pretty-please_ smile.

The detective sighed, looked at his watch, rubbed the back of his neck haggardly, and said, "You have twenty minutes."

* * *

Rob took the seat across from Artemis's and began.

"Look, we want this to go down smoothly, so just keep your cool and this'll be easier for all of us." Dick started.

Artemis scoffed but stayed silent.

Rob cleared his throat. "Do you know why was the League of Shadows working with Intergang?"

Artemis considered her options. She could,

A. Say nothing, give them an even harder time, and be a general pain in the ass until the heroes got fed up with her and sent her to Belle Rev.

B. Cooperate.

or

C. Cooperate with them just long enough to make them think she'd really had a change of heart and make a break for it while their backs were turned.

While the only option that really appealed to her Shadow nature was C, something stirred inside of her. It was a cold hard feeling that made her gut tighten when she realized what it was—A consience.

_Maybe I can be more than a Shadow._ She thought to herself. _As long as I'm working with them, maybe they'll trust me, or let me prove myself. I could be a good guy… I could be…_

She stopped herself before she got carried away.

_No. That's never gonna happen. I've been trained to kill people in over a hundred different ways with my bare hands. I've done too many things I'm not proud of… I'll always just be a criminal-A Shadow._

But Artemis had never really liked the Shadow lifestyle. She was naturally sarcastic and harsh (she called it her "default setting"), but the League of Shadows had taught her how to be a sassy, deceitful bully. Before her training, she had _friends_. She had a life. But when Sportsmaster had taken her into the ways of the Shadows, every trace of the person Artemis used to be vanished.

The only thing that held her together was her mom. It was always Paula who was there for her, comforting her after long, hard training sessions with Lawrence and makings sure Artemis kept up her academic scores.

Artemis knew her mom wanted her out of the life, but as long as Paula was handicapped and Lawrence was still out there, they would both be forced to do his bidding. Artemis was a good fighter, but Sportsmaster would cut her down without a second thought.

When Dick repeated his question, Artemis snapped out of her trance and answered.

"I have no idea."

Kid Flash and the Boy Wonder exchanged looks before continuing.

"How long have you been employed with the Shadows?" Robin asked.

"Uh, about two hours, before you captured me." Another uneasy silence.

Artemis was surprising herself. _What am I doing?!_ She thought. _Telling the truth-what's gotten into me?_

"I uh... entered you into the criminal database system for any facial recognition matches and came up with some pretty interesting results." Robin said, producing a holo-screen from his bulky glove.

Artemis gulped as she watched.

There she was, ten years old, wearing a red sweatshirt and jeans, following her father into a bank that would be robbed only five minutes later.

She remembered that day very clearly—How her father had planted her there to spread lies and panic, how he'd threaten to starve her for a week if she didn't tell the police every bit of _wrong_ information in her arsenal.

Next came footage of various gigs she'd taken in Europe as part of her training. There was a blurry image of Artemis as she ran from building in Switzerland, carrying a briefcase filled with secrets that caused the downfall of countless humanitarian organizations later that year. There was a security clip of her holding a gun to the head of a little boy, no older than eight years old, who had been used as leverage against a prime minister from Denmark.

(Had they looked closer, they would have seen the safety was ON, but Artemis didn't say anything)

Ugly memories from the past came back to her in a montage of pictures and videos that would smear ink in her ledger for decades.

Wally noticed the archer looking down, her face a mask of pain, guilt, and sadness.

But then something changed. Some of her better moments appeared in the lineup, too.

A blurred shot of a girl in a green hoodie, rushing out of a burning building, clutching a baby in her arms. The face was unmistakably Artemis's.

Another picture of her helping an old lady cross the street in Germany.

Security footage of Artemis knocking the knife out of the hand of a man looming over a defenseless girl and punching his lights out. The video even captures a frame of her extending her hand to the innocent girl, who, she remembers, was a little shaken but glad to be alive.

The last one was a clip of Artemis entering a hospital, clutching flowers to her chest and trying to keep her head down. Various cameras followed her as she went through the building, until she arrived at the room of a of a victim who had been in a burning building set aflame by her father a few days before. The camera catches everything-from her placing the flowers on the nightstand and kneeling by the bed, clutching the man's bandaged hand as she tried to comfort him in his pain.

Artemis picked at the dirt beneath her nails while Kid Flash scruitenized her, trying to decide if she was a hardened mercenary who pointed guns at children or a hometown hero who stops rape and murder.

He couldn't decide.


	4. Breakfast

**A/N: Okay... Truth? I don't have any inspiration. I've gone too long without Spitfire I just don't know what to write. This is kind of a drabble chapter, I guess (I'm not entirely sure what "drabble" is exactly) but I didn't want you guys to hate me, so here you go.**

**Please review, I don't own Young Justice blah blah blah... Do you have to do this disclaimer thing every time?**

**P.S. I also went back and edited the chapters a bit so if you want, you can read them again... Unless you're too lazy, like me. Happy reading!**

Batman didn't, in fact, come in after the two young heroes to interrogate Tigress.

As much as the Dark Knight hated to admit it, Kid Flash was right—he was tired.

As Rob and Wally left Artemis to herself, neither of the boys said anything to one another. They watched and waited from the opposite side of the mirrored glass in silence as their prisoner sat a while longer, head in her hands, just staring at the smooth chrome surface of the tabletop for a few moments, before she got up and stretched.

Wally couldn't help but notice how toned the girl was beneath her striped bodysuit. Her arms were nicely muscled, but not freakishly so, and her legs were long but muscular as well. The suit also showed off her nice curves, but Kid Flash stopped himself before thinking about it any more.

_She's not bad on the eyes, though._ Wally thought. _If only she'd take off that mask…_

Artemis paced around the room, examining the walls before calling out, "Do I get a bed or some blankets or something? Or do you expect me to sleep on the floor?"

Rob smiled impishly before pressing a button on a panel on the wall.

Smoothly and slowly, a rectangular section of the wall slid out at knee-level, revealing, as requested, a bed with sheets and a pillow neatly placed at the foot.

Artemis pressed her finger into the mattress, testing it, as though it were something her imagination had conjured out of thin air.

"Uh… thanks?" she said, sounding a bit surprised and relieved at the same time.

Wally allowed himself to grin.

They watched as the archer made herself comfortable on the mattress and fell into the soft pillow, her back towards them.

Again the speedster found himself looking at her figure, how her hips were nicely defined but not too prominent and how her…

_Ugh!_ Wally thought. _Pull yourself together, man!_

Rob gave him a bemused smile, as if reading his friend's thoughts, before leading him out of the observation room.

* * *

Wally slept at the Wayne mansion, as he had done countless times before, too tired to Zeta back to Central city and run all the way home. He called his parents to let them know he was safe, said goodnight, and hit the sheets, relieved that tomorrow was Saturday.

* * *

Wally found his best friend in the kitchen the next morning, placing a waffles, maple syrup, a glass of orange juice, a glass of milk, a banana, and an orange on a tray.

"Where're you going with that?" Wally asked, momentarily confused.

"I'm bringing Tigress her breakfast." Rob replied, beginning to walk towards Artemis's holding cell.

Wally sped in front of the Boy Wonder, abruptly cutting his path to their prisoner.

"Actually, I'll do it. Why don't you call Barbra… or something? I got this, bro." Wally said, taking the tray.

Dick raised an eyebrow but walked off.

Wally silently entered the cell, balancing the tray on one hand, shutting the door tightly with the other.

He had suited up to conceal his identity from the blonde, as instructed by Batman.

Artemis was sleeping soundly on the bed, a smile on her face as she dreamed.

He hated to wake her up, but he had to talk to her. "Tigress? Wake up." He said, his voice barely above normal level.

She immediately shot up and grabbed for something that usually hung at her waist—her crossbow no doubt—and seemed distraught when she couldn't find it. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but the truth of her situation finally registered in her eyes and she climbed out of her sheets, stretching and groaning as if it was any other day. She sat across from Kid Flash at the table and dug into the waffles without a word.

"Why'd you keep the mask on?" Wally blurted out. "We already know what your face looks like. We already have your DNA."

Artemis considered this for a moment before hesitantly reaching for her mask and tossing it aside.

When she looked up, Wally saw the most gorgeous eyes he'd ever seen. Her eyes were a sparkling blue-gray, shining with intelligence, courage, curiosity… and a trait that he almost thought to be fear, although it was something deeper than that. They were like storm clouds, her thought, swelling on the edge of a horizon-dark and fierce, at first glance.

Wally grinned and leaned back, folding his arms across his chest. "Now I can see your beautiful eyes."

Artemis rolled said beautiful eyes and continued eating.

After a moment she paused and asked, "What's with the suit? Did you put it on just for me or do you prefer to sleep in spandex?"

"You slept in yours." He responded.

Both of them knew that wasn't exactly fair, considering her only other option was her _birthday_ suit, but she gave him a sarcastic smile and said, "Touché."

Wally decided he liked her voice. It was throaty and low, but in a sexy way, and it has a particular drawl to it that made him hang on every word that came from her mouth.

The conversation that ensued was a barrage of witty remarks and sarcastic scoffs, though neither would admit that they really enjoyed each other's company. It was a small snippet of a Saturday morning-usually Artemis would be sleeping in or practicing at the archery range-but she found that she would have preferred breakfast with the speedster to her usual activities.

Even Wally, who spent _his_ Saturday mornings in front of the TV, decided that he liked her company much more than the History Channel, which was surprising to a man of science like Wally.

Artemis was almost sad to see the speedster go, but she quickly kicked herself for being so open with a complete stranger—a soon-to-be leaguer, no less.

"It's never gonna happen." She whispered to herself as she sat cross-legged on the bed.

Although a small part of her wished that it would.


	5. Headquarters

**A/N: This one's a little short but think of it as my Christmas gift to ya'll... Or late Hanukkah... Or early Kwanzaa...**

**Thanks for all of the great reviews and have a happy holiday(s)!**

* * *

Meanwhile...

* * *

The room inside the League of Shadows headquarters was dim, lit by a single pocket light in the ceiling. A couch and a small round table were its only furnishings.

A lithe, raven-haired girl stood against the wall on one side of the room, glaring at the blonde man who lay sprawled on the couch on the other side, absentmindedly playing with a pair of smoke bombs from his utility belt.

Jade scowled at her father, unable to withstand his irksome silence any longer.

"What are we gonna do about Artemis, _Dad?_" She spat. She rarely acknowledged the fact that the horrible being before her was kin, and when she did, she was never proud to do so.

Lawrence paused, slightly irritated, but then smiled at her wickedly. If the girl was going to annoy him, he might as well humor her.

"That's not up to me, little girl, but if I had it my way, she'd already be—"

Jade launched herself across the room, catching the bigger man by surprise and impaling her sai knife in the wall by his face. Her expression was clear: she'd had enough of his games.

"You monster!" she said angrily. "She's your own flesh and blood—and you don't even care that she's with the League now!"

Lawrence sneered, dropping his act. "Of course I care!" he retorted. "I spent ten years on her, shaping her into a killing machine; and after one night on the job, she gets herself captured. She was always an ungrateful child."

Before Jade could slap him, two more men strode into the room.

"There's no need for that, Cheshire." said a slightly amused Ra's al Ghul. "The fate of you sister has already been decided."

Black Spider, who had been standing behind the larger man, shifted uncomfortably as he said these words.

"We're putting a bounty on the girl—if she does not escape the Justice League within the next 72 hours and make it back to headquarters, we're sending our best assassins after her." he paused before adding, "We simply cannot have the girl divulging our secrets to our enemies."

Lawrence nodded in agreement.

Cheshire fought to keep her temper under control. "What if we send in an extraction team—someone to get her out. She is, after all, one of our most skilled combatants. And it's not even her fault she'd been captured—you can thank Spidey over there for that."

"The girl will have to fend for herself." Ra's said sternly.

Black Spider stared at the floor, his face expressionless, although his eyes betrayed his true feeling—guilt. He waited for Ra's al Ghul to leave the room before speaking.

"I'm truly sorry about Artemis's capture, Chesh." he said solemnly. Cheshire scowled at him.

Spider turned to Sportsmaster and gulped out, "So I suppose my betrothal to your daughter is—"

"BETROTHED?" Cheshire shrieked.

Lawrence ignored her. "Terminated."

"How could you arrange a marriage for Artemis?" Cheshire shuddered at the thought of being promised to a man chosen by her father.

Sportsmaster shrugged. "It was a business deal."

"It wouldn't have been so bad." Black Spider said quietly.

"But a _betrothal?" _Cheshire said, the disgust thickening her voice. "Of all of the old-fashioned rituals you chose to partake in, you choose to _betroth _my sister to a man who's nearly a decade older than her?_"_

"Black Spider and I had an agreement." Lawrence said.

"Did she know?" Cheshire asked harshly, her threatening gaze falling on her father.

"No. We were going to wait for her eighteenth birthday, but seeing as she'll be dead by then..." Sportsmaster trailed off.

"Artemis will get out." Cheshire promised. "I know she will." She paused and gave her father another death glare before saying her final words on the matter. "But when she does, she won't be stupid enough to come back here."


	6. The Interrogation, pt 2

**A/N: I'm a little more inspired now, thanks to the great reviews I've been getting (*cough* maybe ya'll should keep reviewing so I'll update faster *cough*). This story has gotten a much better feedback than I ever could have hoped, so thank ya'll, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Batman strode silently into the room, taking a place at the table and waiting for the archer to take her place across from him.

Artemis, who had been glaring at the ceiling for over an hour, was relieved that someone had come to rescue her from her boredom, despite the fact that this "someone" was the Dark Knight himself.

It was mid-afternoon, as far as she could tell, considering her cell had no windows or a clock to which she could refer. A couple of hours ago, her lunch had been brought in by a thin butler with a gray mustache.

As she sat, the detective narrowed his eyes at her and slid a manila file folder across the table. "Ms. Crock."

Artemis sighed. "So you've gotten my DNA results." Her own statement was confirmed when she opened the folder, leafing through its contents and grimacing at that God-awful school picture of her that was paper clipped to the first page.

Batman nodded. "Artemis Crock. Age 15. Daughter of Lawrence Crock and Paula Crock, who also go by—"

"Sportsmaster and Huntress. I appreciate the narration, Batman, but I don't need to be reminded of my family heritage." Artemis cut in.

Batman merely nodded.

"So Ms. Crock…" he began again, "When did you begin your training?"

"You're going to have to be more specific. I started archery when I was about six, martial arts in fourth grade, weapon handling before I could walk..."

"Your training for the shadows. When did that begin?"

"Oh. Ten years ago. For my fifth birthday, my dad handed me a gun and told me that someday I was gonna be just like him."

Her expression remained as hard as stone, but on the inside, she was crying out. That was the day she lost her innocence… and as the years went on, her life.

"Interesting." Was Batman's only comment.

Artemis shuffled the papers in front of her around for a moment before Bats asked another question.

"How do you feel about your job?"

"It's a job. It keeps my mother safe." Artemis's voice was clear and flat.

"How do you feel about your family?"

She paused for a moment, contemplating a response.

"My dad is a world-class asshole. My sister is a twenty-first century Houdini. My mom is a crippled ex-con who barely makes ends meet, even with my help—my family is nothing to be proud of."

* * *

Wally sat on the other side of the glass, watching the blonde who, he now knew as "Artemis", as she talked.

She was truthful. Open. And he couldn't get the familiarity of her out of his head… Her story was all too real and personal.

* * *

"Who is this?" Batman flashed her a picture of a wrinkled Asian man with hair that stood straight up in tufts on either side of his head and a fu Manchu moustache.

"Ra's al Ghul."

"What is his affiliation with the League of Shadows?"

"He calls the shots—he deploys his shadows to every corner of the world and wills them to kill, all with just one word."

"Who is this?" he held up another picture. Another crinkled face stared up at her, only with one white eye and one brown.

"The Sensei. He's a senior member of the League of Shadows, but as far as I can tell, he doesn't do much."

"And this?" another picture. The man in this one was young, but his face was battle-worn and matured. He had a buzz cut and one of the stupidest mustaches Artemis had ever seen.

Artemis had to concentrate to remember his name. "Mannheim? Benny or Barty Mannheim?" she shrugged. "I don't know. I've seen a few times. He's a pal of my dad's—when they're not scowling at each other, they get along real well."

At this Batman almost cracked a smile—although he held back.

"Artemis, your cooperation is better than expected—why?"

The blonde couldn't explain it. Her shadow nature was telling her to take her interrogation as an opportunity—she could compromise Batman's identity by asking a few key questions or simply knocking his mask off—but Artemis didn't want to do that. She didn't want to be the scumbag criminal who sat back and sneered and did nothing to be less of a pain in the ass to her captors.

She looked at the detective, square in the face, and uttered four simple words.

"I have no idea."


End file.
